When the heart of the world speaks

Over the last 3 weeks or so, I have noticed something while driving about the DFW area. About every other day, I'll witness a hawk strike.

Birds of prey are nothing new around here. We have, of course, the red tails who tend to hang out on light fixtures along the highways. There's the occasional Swainson's doing the same. A bit more in the country, you'll run across the kestrels. And there's always a good chance of spotting a kite floating high up in the sky.

However, what I don't generally see with frequency is the swoop and dive of the hunter, followed by it's flight back to a perch bearing an unwilling passenger. I'd seen it once or twice over the last several years in real life, one of those times being an unsettling one in my parent's backyard where I was idly watering some ferns and had a red tail crash into the bush 2 feet beside me and start eating a mouse.

So the sheer numbers is kind of odd. Odd enough that I wonder if it's some kind of sign, and if it is, what does it mean? I tend to view it from the hawk's point of view, so perhaps I'm being told to seize an opportunity? Or maybe I should be taking it as a warning that caution is required if you want to avoid the sudden unexpected atrocities of the world. Perhaps both?

Or maybe there are just a lot more rats and birds out this year.